A strange “chirping” signal from a distant supernova has revealed the birth of a magnetar, confirming that these incredibly magnetic neutron stars can power the universe's brightest stellar explosions. The discovery also marks the first time Einstein's general relativity has been used to explain the mechanics of a supernova.
For all their sticky, stretchy, and protective properties, hydrogels lack one key trait: breathability. If worn for too long, a bandage or patch can trap moisture and sweat, which can irritate tissues and reduce the effectiveness of any device that a hydrogel adheres.
Now MIT engineers have come up with a recipe for a hydrogel that is both hydrated and aerated, or permeable to air. The new material is just as soft, stretchy, and robust as conventional hydrogels, but a network of tiny tunnels running through the gel allows air to pass through.
The aerated hydrogel can be worn for longer periods of time compared to conventional hydrogels, without causing skin irritation. It can also reduce sweat buildup, even during exercise. In experiments, volunteers wore wireless heart monitors that were attached to their chest with the new breathable hydrogel. After working out regularly for 10 days, the volunteers showed no signs of skin irritation, and the heart monitors maintained clear readings.
Astronomers studying the rare supernova SN 2021yfj discovered material from one of the deepest layers of a dying star, providing a rare look at its hidden interior. The finding confirms key theories about how massive stars forge the elements that help build planets, worlds, and life.
Astronomers have glimpsed the inner structure of a dying star in a rare kind of cosmic explosion called an “extremely stripped supernova.”
In a paper published in Nature, Steve Schulze of Northwestern University in the United States and colleagues describe the supernova 2021yfj and a thick shell of gas surrounding it.
Almost everyone will deal with back pain at some point in their lives. Most recover quickly—but for about 20% of people, acute pain becomes a chronic condition that interferes with daily life and keeps them out of the workforce.
Low back pain is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, and more money is spent managing it in the United States than any other health condition. Despite that, the most effective way to prevent a short-term episode from becoming a long-term problem has not been clear—especially for people who are most at risk.
“Chronic low back pain prevention is a public health issue,” said Michael Schneider, D.C., Ph.D., professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh and co-principal investigator of the Pitt arm of the study. “The 20% of patients who turn chronic account for 80% of the costs and the suffering. This paper shows that helping people self-manage their pain through a properly trained physical therapist or chiropractor is a great way to mitigate this public health problem.”
An experimental drug developed at Michigan Medicine has shown the ability to reverse severe fatty liver disease in animal studies by restoring gut health. The findings, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest that targeting the connection between the gut and liver could offer a promising new approach for treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).
MASH is a serious form of fatty liver disease that affects about 7% of people worldwide. It can progress to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure, yet effective treatment options remain limited.
The investigational compound, known as DT-109, is a glycine-based tripeptide. Researchers found that it reversed MASH in animal models by interrupting a harmful biological process linking the gut and liver.
More than half a century ago, Sir Roger Penrose envisioned a scenario in which energy could be extracted from a black hole spinning at extreme speeds. He proposed that a particle entering its ergosphere—a region of space dragged around by a rotating black hole—could split into two. One part could fall into the black hole while the other escaped carrying more energy than the original particle. Building on this theory, physicist Yakov Zel’dovich later predicted that a wave interacting with a sufficiently fast, rotating object could extract energy from it and become amplified.
Inspired by this theoretical construct, researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have published a paper in Nature demonstrating a new approach to wave amplification through interaction with rotating bodies. Rather than mechanically rotating matter, however, the team engineered a radio-frequency device with properties modulated in space and time to mimic spinning. The device creates a synthetic form of ultrafast rotation that enables access to rotational speeds far beyond what can be achieved mechanically, allowing researchers to overcome limitations that have long hindered experimental studies of ultrafast rotational dynamics.
“Our approach facilitates a new method of wave–matter interaction in which waves with selected rotational properties extract energy from synthetic time-engineered rotation, producing a form of broadband selective amplification,” said principal investigator Andrea Alù, distinguished professor and Einstein Professor of Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center and founding director of the CUNY ASRC’s Photonics Initiative.
A team of researchers from VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, the VCU School of Dentistry and the University of Pennsylvania recently published a study in Nature Communications examining why some oral inflammatory diseases progress much more rapidly than others.
The study was co-led by Kang I. Ko, D.D.S., Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania; Jinze Liu, Ph.D., of VCU; and Kevin Matthew Byrd, D.D.S., Ph.D., of VCU, with co-first authors Quinn T. Easter, Ph.D., and Khoa L.A. Huynh, Ph.D. The findings identified previously unrecognized changes in blood vessels that may help researchers better understand tissue destruction in oral disease and provide insights relevant to other inflammatory conditions, including cancer.
To conduct this study, the research team used and expanded a tool they created, the Human Periodontal Atlas—the leading periodontal atlas in the world—as part of the wider Human Cell Atlas, a single-cell atlas built from existing publicly available data sets, to examine RNA patterns across different cell types.
Harvard geneticist David Sinclair returns to explain how his lab’s age-reversal technology has moved from mice and primates into FDA-cleared human trials — starting with an attempt to reverse vision loss from glaucoma, a condition considered permanent. Sinclair breaks down the science of Yamanaka factors, why using three genes instead of four sidesteps the cancer risk, and his core thesis: make the body young enough and it can cure its own diseases.
He and James also go deep on the practical longevity playbook: NMN, NAD and Sirtuins, metformin and berberine, testosterone and muscle mass, sleep, diet, and how to separate real science from longevity misinformation. Sinclair shares his own protocol at 56, his 86-year-old father’s results, and teases a next-generation \.
A new study associated with Immorta Bio suggests that combining a senolytic vaccine with mesenchymal stem cells might create a synergistic impact. However, the findings rest on acute, artificially induced injury models rather than natural aging [1].
Clearing out senescent cells to help stem cells work
Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapies have largely underperformed in the clinic. MSCs are connective-tissue stem cells that help mostly not by becoming new tissue but by secreting repair-promoting factors. Despite strong preclinical promise, clinical MSC trials in fibrosis, inflammation, and organ failure have shown only modest benefits [2].
